In recent years, many organic dyes have been used in display materials, optical recording media, inkjet recording material, etc. In a case in which a dye is used in a coating process or an inkjet recording process, the dye is required to have a high molar absorption coefficient as well as high solubility in solvents in order to increase coloring efficiency.
Recently, displays utilizing an electrowetting method (EWD) have attracted attention as a new image display technology (for example, see Nature (London), 425, 383 (2003)). Displays of this type employ an image forming method in which plural pixels filled with two phases formed by a hydrophilic medium and an oil-based color ink are arranged on a substrate, affinity for the hydrophilic medium interface or the oil-based color ink interface is controlled by on-off control of voltage application for each pixel, and image is displayed by spreading the oil-based color ink over the substrate/deforming the oil-based color ink. Dyes for use in such electrowetting displays are required to have high solubility in hydrocarbon solvents.
Examples of known dyes for use in displays utilizing an electrowetting method include azo dye compounds such as the following compounds D-101 and D-102, and anthraquinone dye compounds such as the following compound D-103 (for example, see International Patent Publication No. WO 2008/142086 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2009-138189).
